1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a housing arrangement with at least two junction boxes, a base part and a cover, the junction boxes each having a square housing, in the housings there being a terminal strip which has at least one terminal for electrical connection of an electric cable or a line, and the housings having at least one opening each for electric cables or lines. In addition, the invention relates to a junction box with a square housing, with a terminal strip which has at least one terminal for electrical connection of an electric cable or a line, the housing having at least one opening for electric cables or lines.
2. Description of Related Art
Junction boxes which are often also called wiring boxes, outlet boxes, or cable boxes are known in manifold versions. If it is a matter of connecting a cable to an electrical device or a machine, the box is called an outlet box. If two cables or lines are to be connected to one another, the box is called a junction box. Generally the outlet box and the junction box are made essentially identically so that a junction box is always addressed below.
These boxes generally consist of a bottom part and a cover which can be screwed onto the bottom part. The known boxes have a different cross sectional configuration, and in their interior the terminals for electrical connection of an electric cable or a line are arranged directly differently. Generally, instead of individual terminals, continuous terminal strips are used which have several terminals. German Patent Application DE 43 20 261 A1 discloses attaching the terminals to the floor of the bottom part of the housing. The terminals can be fixed on the floor of the box by additional fasteners, for example, by screws. In addition, the molding of projections onto which the terminals can be slipped on the floor is also known.
The core of an electric cable can be connected to each terminal. Instead of electric cables which are used for transmission of current, therefore which supply a system or machine with the necessary operating current or the necessary operating voltage, electric lines which are used primarily or in addition to transmit electrical signals, i.e., for data transmission, can also be connected to the junction boxes. This is the case for example, in so-called sensor-actuator systems. The junction boxes are thus used as mechanical protection for the terminals which are located in the interior and as electrical protection for the electrical connection which is established on the terminals between the different cables or lines. The housing of the junction boxes therefore generally consists of a plastic which satisfies the respective requirements, with a corresponding safety class, for example, IP 66 or higher.
These junction boxes are often located together in a plurality in control cabinets, the bottom parts often having attachment possibilities, for example, hooks or holes, for attachment of the junction boxes to a mounting rail or to a mounting wall. To connect the individual junction boxes to one another, bottom parts are known which have hooks on their side walls so that several junction boxes can be connected to one another to form a housing arrangement, the individual junction boxes being located in one plane next to one another and on top of one another. But the disadvantage here is that by connecting the individual junction boxes to one another the alignment of the openings which are made in the individual junction boxes for the incoming and outgoing electric cables is fixed. This housing arrangement thus cannot be used for different applications in which the incoming and the outgoing cables or lines come from different directions which are not established beforehand.